Which to use
“poach” and “poached” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,828
- “poach” frequency rank
- #29,421
- “poached” frequency rank
- 72249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poach | poached |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To cook (something) in simmering or very hot liquid (usually water; sometimes wine, broth, or otherwise). | simple past and past participle of poach |
Where the eye mixes poach and poached
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poach runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against poached's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between poach and poached
A purely visual mix-up. poach (/ˈpoʊt͡ʃ/) and poached (/pəʊtʃt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “poach” sits inside “poached”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poach is recorded at frequency rank #42,828, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpoʊt͡ʃ/. poached is at rank #29,421, tagged as averb, pronounced /pəʊtʃt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 72249, this pair ranks #43,694 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of poach vs poached
Shared letters: achop. Private to "poach": -. Private to "poached": de.
"poach" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "poached" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poach" for "poached" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "poach" or "poached" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "poach" and "poached" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poached" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,694 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poach" and "poached" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poach vs poacher". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #43,694 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.